The sudden bankruptcy and closure of Smile Direct Club has left many patients in the lurch, mid-treatment, and unsure of their options. This blog intends to shed light on alternative paths to achieve your smile goals and ensure that the journey towards your perfect beautiful smile continues without any hindrance.
It is important to continue your orthodontic treatment even if Smile Direct Club has stopped its operations. Seeing a licensed dentist or orthodontist is crucial to complete your orthodontic care and avoid prolonging the treatment time. Here are some points to keep in mind as you search for alternative options to continue your care:
Assessing Current Progress – Reassess your teeth alignment progress. Take note of any changes, distortions, or issues that have emerged since your Smile Direct Club treatment. This self-assessment will be valuable when consulting a new orthodontist or dental service provider.
Tracking Changes – Monitor any crowding, spacing, or misalignments that might have occurred. Keep a record to document shifts in your teeth alignment. This information will help the new provider understand your needs and tailor a treatment plan accordingly.
Consulting a New Dentist – Seek out a qualified orthodontist or dental professional experienced in post-aligner treatments. During your in person consultation, share your previous treatment details, progress, and concerns. Discuss your goals and expectations for the ongoing treatment.
Exploring Alternative Options – If necessary, explore alternative treatment options that align with your current dental situation. Your new orthodontist might suggest braces, clear plastic aligners, or other specialized treatments based on your unique alignment needs.
Consistent Follow-ups – Commit to consistent follow-up appointments with your new provider. Regular check-ins will allow for adjustments and ensure that your treatment is progressing as expected.
Patience and Perseverance – Understand that achieving optimal teeth alignment takes time. Be patient and committed to the new treatment plan recommended by your orthodontist, as it will ultimately contribute to a healthier and more aligned smile.
Maintaining Compliance – Transitioning from Smile Direct Club to a new orthodontic provider doesn’t mean your journey ends; rather, it’s an opportunity to ensure that your teeth alignment continues progressing towards the desired outcome while prioritizing your oral health.
The next recommended step is to consult a doctor or dentist. If you’re in the midst of your teeth-straightening process and have more to accomplish, it is recommened to seek guidance from your local dentist or doctor for further dental treatment. Additionally, there are similar direct-to-consumer invisible braces companies available, akin to Smile Direct Club. For optimal results, consider traditional teeth straightening options like those listed below.
Traditional Metal Braces – Traditonal braces offer a high level of control to your orthodontist and are effective for severe cases. Although they can be visible, they provide reliable results and are often less expensive than other options.
Ceramic Braces – Clear braces are similar to regular braces but use clear materials, making them less noticeable. They are ideal for patients concerned about aesthetics but still need the control that braces offer.
Lingual Braces – Lingual braces are placed on the back of your teeth, which makes them nearly invisible. However, they can be more uncomfortable and challenging to clean compared to traditional braces.
Invisible Aligners – Invisalign offers transparent, removable aligners, custom-fitted for your teeth. Invisalign is the better aligner company for mild to moderate teeth misalignments and offer the advantage of being almost invisible and removable.
If you are in the middle of treatment with Smile Direct Club and are now looking for an alternative to continue your dental alignment journey, the thought of transitioning to a new provider might seem daunting. However, doing so will help you continue your path to straighter teeth. Here are some factors to consider when choosing the right alternative provider.
Consult a Local Dentist or Orthodontist: Schedule an appointment with a local dentist or orthodontist. They can assess your current progress, review your dental records, and discuss suitable alternatives to complete your treatment.
Explore Other Clear Aligner Brands: If you’re worried about the look of braces, consider clear or lingual braces or an aligner system like Invisalign. Aligner kits, such as Invisalign, offer a similar concept and can be personalized to suit your needs.
Review Cost and Insurance Coverage: Consider the cost of treatment and whether your dental insurance covers any alternatives. Evaluate the overall expenses to ensure it aligns with your budget.
Read Reviews and Research: Take the time to read reviews, research different brands, and understand their treatment processes, including average treatment time, and aftercare.
For the best possible outcome, it is recommended to explore traditional methods for teeth straightening by visiting an experienced dentist or orthodontist. Choosing the right dentist is crucial for achieving the desired aesthetic appeal and improving oral health. An experienced dental professional can provide personalized treatment and help you make informed decisions. Therefore, it is important to identify a competent and suitable dental expert for your teeth alignment needs.
Research and Referrals – Start by creating a list of potential dentists in your area. You may use online platforms or ask for referrals from friends, family, or your primary healthcare provider.
Qualifications and Expertise – To make an informed decision when choosing a dentist specializing in alignment and cosmetic dentistry, it’s important to verify their education, training, and certifications. Additionally, you should consider their level of experience. Look for a dentist with several years of exposure, as they are more likely to have encountered a wider range of cases and have more solutions at their disposal.
Technology and Techniques – The field of dentistry is always advancing with new technologies and techniques that can improve efficiency and results. To find the best dentist, look for those who use these advancements. You can typically find this information on their website or ask about it during your consultation visit.
Reviews and Testimonials – Patient satisfaction is a crucial aspect in determining the quality of dental services offered. Finding common trends could provide valuable insights into the patient experience when straightening your teeth.
Consultation and Communication – It is important to build a good relationship with your new dentist. You can start by scheduling an initial consultation to discuss treatment options, costs, and expected outcomes. This will give you an opportunity to gauge their communication style, attentiveness, and willingness to answer your questions.
The sudden shutdown of Smile Direct Club has caused inevitable disruption for patients undergoing treatment. However, it is important to not let this setback obstruct the path towards achieving your desired smile. It is crucial to continue your orthodontic journey with the same, if not greater, diligence and commitment, even if it means finding a new provider.
Selecting the right dentist is crucial for achieving a successful treatment outcome. It is essential to conduct thorough research, verify the dentist’s qualifications and expertise, assess their comfort level with modern technology, and seek testimonials from their previous clients. Above all, prioritize a dentist who openly communicates with you, understands your goals, and aligns with your expectations. If you’re currently in the Fairview Allen area and looking for a dentist to help you achieve a beautiful smile, please do not hesitate to contact us today. You can reach us at our Fairview, TX dental office to schedule an in-person consultation with us today – 972-468-1440.
Our dental office is located in Fairview, Texas, and our patients visit us from across the surrounding areas, including Allen, Plano, McKinney, and Lucas.
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all of the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.
These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside of it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers), both for Windows and for MAC users.
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to